Tutorial
Entering the Game When you first register, you will be randomly assigned to a country and taken to your player profile page. The first thing you should do is to fill out the information in your profile. You can't do this directly from the default profile view. Click on "Profile", found under "PLAYER OPTIONS" in the left-hand sidebar. This will take you to a page that looks very similar to the one you just came from. On this page, underneath your profile, there should be a link labeled "Edit your profile". Click on it to go to the profile editing page. Once you're on the correct page, editing your profile information is fairly self-explanatory. There are only two things to watch out for. First, the "remove your current avatar" checkbox will override uploading a new avatar. That is, you should only check this box if you want to end up having no avatar set -- if you merely want to replace your current avatar with a different one, then you shouldn't check this box; your old avatar will be removed automatically Second, your avatar should be no larger than 100x100 pixels and square. If the avatar you upload is too large, it will be shrunk down automatically, and you may not like the results. If your avatar is rectangular rather than square -- if its width is different than its height -- then nothing will seem wrong in the game, but your avatar will be stretched or squashed out of shape in the forum. Remember to click Save when you're done. Choosing a Country The first thing you should know about your country is its population. In the right-hand sidebar, under "COUNTRY OPTIONS", click on "PM's Cabinet". This will bring up an overview of various information about your country. We'll discuss what each of these means later; for now, we're interested only in the first line: Population. Because the game is still young, it's very possible that this number will be 1, meaning that you are the sole inhabitant of your country. You might also find yourself in a country with two or three other citizens, or in a very populous country of many citizens. If you're not alone, then now would be a good time to meet your fellow countrymen and countrywomen. On the left sidebar under "COMMUNICATION", the "Local Parliament" and "Country Chat" offer dedicated means of communication for the citizens of your country only, and on the right under "COUNTRY OPTIONS", "Logs" lets you take a look at how active and helpful your fellow-citizens have been recently. Now you have a few choices. You can emigrate to a foreign country if you're dissatisfied with your own; you can stay where you are; and if you are alone (or can influence your countrymates), then you can either close the country's doors against immigrants, or leave them open, or leave them open and advertise publicly for immigrants on the forum. If you choose to emigrate, use the "Emigrate" link under "COUNTRY OPTIONS" on the right. The drop-down menu on that page lists various countries along with their current populations, so that (for example) an entry reading "Narnia (42)" would mean that the nation of Narnia currently has 42 citizens. Select the country that you want to move to and click the Emigrate button. To close your borders, first click "Border Control" under "COUNTRY OPTIONS" on the right. Click on the "IMMIGRATION" tab, select "Don't let anyone in", and press Save. To advertise your country on the forum, or to look at other countries' advertisements when making your decision, click "Community Forum" under "MAIN" on the left. Look around the forum, read messages, and get a feeling for community standards before posting. You may also want to look through the countries of the world alphabetically or geographically. Stats Return to the main page (left: MAIN: Home). In addition to the profile information you entered earlier, this page displays several of your in-game statistics. We'll take each of them in turn, below. Some stats are displayed in the red banner across the top of the page, but this display has been known to lag behind the stats' actual values in some cases. Pressing F5 to refresh usually causes it to update. The Knowledge, Strength, and Mood stats decay over time. Rating points Rating points are purchased at the market (right: THE WORLD: Market) for $1 in-game currency each. Rating points have no known effect, but are the default ranking for the top ten list (right: USEFUL INFO: Top Players). Strength Strength is gained by playing the Duck Shooting minigame (right: THE WORLD: Entertainment: Duck Shooting). After playing this game nine times in any one hour, any further duck games in that hour won't count. Duck hunting costs $75, but can earn money overall if you're good enough at it. Strength is also gained by winning the Bear Hunting minigame (right: THE WORLD: Entertainment: Bear Hunting). Strength can be spent on building (by default, 4 strength per percentage point of completion per structure -- 300 points for one complete structure -- though this can be improved with the Building skill (see below)), and most jobs require a certain minimum Strength score. Knowledge Knowledge is gained from the Sudoku minigame (right: THE WORLD: Entertainment: Sudoku), and by posting in the forum (left: MAIN: Community Forum). Note that points are not given for any of the forms of in-game communication listed under COMMUNICATION (the global and local parliaments and chats, and the messaging system). Do not spam the forum for Knowledge. You will be punished. Knowledge is a prerequisite for many jobs. Mood Mood is gained by playing minigames (right: THE WORLD: Entertainment). It is unclear whether all games earn mood, or only certain games are mood-earning. Mood has no known in-game use. Money on hand Money is gained by hunting ducks well (hunting ducks poorly loses money), from some jobs, from bank interest, and from farming (left: PLAYER OPTIONS: Land). Money is spent on crops, in the market, on national defence, and hunting ducks and bears. Skills The Finance, Farming, and Business skills are gained from various jobs (left: PLAYER OPTIONS: Profession). Finance affects your interest rate in the bank; Farming is necessary in order to practice agriculture; and Building is useful for constructing buildings. Profession The implications of Profession are wide-ranging and sparsely distributed. References to jobs are found throughout this tutorial. You can change your job (at most once a day) from the Profession screen (left: PLAYER OPTIONS: Profession). Each available job has a Strength and Knowledge prerequisite, a daily salary, and a side effect or perk. For example, the "Shop Clerk" profession has as prerequisites a minimum of 0 Strength and 2 Knowledge, a daily salary of $1200, and a perk of a 10% discount at the supermarket. So What Do I Do About All This? To start off with, play the Duck Shooting, Bear Hunting, and Sudoku minigames for a bit, post on the forum and get to be a part of the community, choose a profession (left: PLAYER OPTIONS: Profession), and see what happens. The game is still in active development, and the developer does listen on the forum. If you find a bug, or have a feature idea, or anything, don't hesitate to post. Nobody knows what comes next. The long-term strategic shape of the game has still to be discovered, and in large part has still to be written. You can help to shape it. As you gain greater and deeper knowledge of the game, and as the game itself changes, please update the documentation on this wiki. It's an exciting time for all of us. You're in for an adventure. Have fun.